CHAPTER XXV

THE BALKAN PENINSULA (YUGOSLAVIA AND

ALBANIA)

POLITICAL instability and economic backwardness have long character-
ized the Balkans. Under the Turkish rule, internal dissension was
fostered in an attempt to prevent a unified movement for independence.
Following the overthrow of the Turks, the peninsula was divided into
a number of small and relatively weak states, whose international con-
flicts and internal intrigues fill a most unsavory page of European his-
tory. Attempts were made to achieve greater unity, but the physical
complexity of the peninsula limited progress in this direction by divid-
ing the population into a number of isolated groups. This isolation re-
sulted in an unusual diversity of race, language, creed and political
and economic interests, and has fostered unrest. Under such conditions,
cultural and economic progress has been difficult, and it is not surpris-
ing that the Balkans contain many of the most backward peoples of
Europe.

LOCATION AND ROUTES

Throughout European history the Balkan Peninsula has been a
great thoroughfare linking Europe with the more advanced of the
Asiatic peoples. Only the extremely narrow waters of the Bosporus
and the Dardanelles separate it from Asia Minor, over whose arid pla-
teaus routes lead to Mesopotamia and, by way of the Persian Gulf,
to Persia and India. Northward over this route pressed the Turkish
hordes bent upon the invasion of Europe. Southeastward over this
route the products of western Europe today move toward the markets
of the Near and the Far East. This was the route to be followed by
the proposed Berlin-to-Bagdad railway, and although this German
dream for capturing the trade of the east was shattered as a result of
the World War, it is inevitable that eventually a railway will link the
Persian Gulf with the North Sea, and provide more rapid and eco-
nomical contacts with the east.

The narrow waters of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles also link

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